ARBIL , Iraq -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Two United Arab Emirates based companies announced on Tuesday that they will be investing in the Iraq 's autonomous region of Kurdistan .

Nechirvan Barzani , Prime Minister of the Kurdish Regional Government , called the project `` a significant contribution to the Iraqi economy . ''

Four hundred and sixty one million square feet have been officially assigned to `` Gas Cities LLC , '' a joint venture between Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum , both Sharjah-based companies , to establish a new venture : `` Kurdistan Gas City . ''

Kurdistan Gas City will include industrial , residential and commercial buildings in an integrated city . The expected initial investment in basic infrastructure is estimated at $ 3 billion , with further foreign direct investment exceeding $ 40 billion during the operations phase .

Work will start on the project , which is designed to promote private sector investment in a variety of gas-related industries , on September 21 .

Gas City is structured to hold over 20 varieties of world scale petrochemical and heavy manufacturing plants , and hundreds of small and medium-sized enterprises -LRB- SMEs -RRB- , served by state-of-the-art facilities .

Mr Nechirvan Barzani , Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government , said : `` Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum have made a significant contribution to the Iraqi economy through their work in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq thus far , we are making significant progress in spurring on economic growth and creating opportunity for our people . ''

Hamid Jafar , Executive Chairman of Dana Gas , explained the importance of this achievement saying : `` The Kurdistan Gas City is an enormous step forward in Dana Gas ' strategy across the Middle East , North Africa and South Asia . ''

The Kurdistan Gas City is projected to generate job opportunities for nearly 200,000 Iraqi citizens in infrastructure , industrial projects , support services and other business activities .

This is not the first project for Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum in Iraq 's Kurdistan Region , the two companies are committed to a service agreement signed in April 2007 with the Kurdistan Regional Government to build 180 kilometers of natural gas pipeline and two liquefied petroleum gas -LRB- LPG -RRB- plants , which are 80 percent complete .

The project is on track and will start pumping 150 million cubic feet of gas per day in the coming weeks , rising to 300 million cubic feet by early 2009 .

Other companies from the UAE showed similar interest in Kurdistan Region `` Damac Properties '' one of the major private developers in the regions revealed on June 3 plans for a $ 16 billion residential , commercial and recreational project .

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Emirati companies making significant investments in Kurdistan

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Kurdistan Gas City will include industrial , residential and commercial buildings

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Work will start on the project on September 21